What is your vision of ESA's role in shaping the future of ecology?

Although many lament our current environmental trajectory, I believe this is a great time to be an ecologist. Human activities degrade nature yet Nature remains a powerful force that will continue to assert itself via extreme events. Hard infrastructure is not always an economical or desirable solution to natural disaster mitigation. Knowledge from a wide range of ecological research, driven by curiosity or need, will yield the essential building blocks to solve many of the environmental challenges we will face in the future.